


The Water Lily Bridge

by tomurasss



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Art School, Flowers, Gay, Hajime Hinata - Freeform, Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito-centric, M/M, Nagito Komaeda - Freeform, Painting, Portraits, let them be happy 2k19, martha they love each other, ooc? yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 13:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21429211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomurasss/pseuds/tomurasss
Summary: Hajime causes an accident in his and Komaeda’s art class. Lucky for him, Komaeda doesn’t get that mad.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito
Comments: 5
Kudos: 124





	The Water Lily Bridge

It was almost like a really,  _ really  _ bad dream. Like one of those dreams you’d get after taking cold medicine and its just so vivid and weird and when you wake up it's like “Oh shit I’m alive”

But unfortunately for Komaeda, it was real. This is actually happening and no amount of “Hey God would you mind an early check in?” pleads would get him out of it.  T̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶K̶o̶m̶a̶e̶d̶a̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶e̶m̶p̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶.̶

One of his classmates, previously unidentified to Komaeda, had bumped into the canvas Komaeda had been working on. In response Komaeda had yelled, in fear of the still wet canvas falling, “Shit!”.

Then that’s when the real fun started,

The unknown classmate, a rather quiet boy who always sat in front of the room, immediately jumped, probably because he’d never heard Komaeda say anything to him before. This then caused every jar and brush to be knocked off the table and fall to the ground. The classmate, along with a frantic stream of “fuck I’m so sorry” scrambled to the ground to pick everything up, but instead slipped on the spilled paint and fell face first onto the ground. During the fall, he had attempted to grab onto something, this of course being the easel Komaeda’s canvas was on and knocked that down too.

So now this student, who Komaeda had really wished he knew his name now, lay face down in a pool of paint, and a wet canvas on his back. By now the entire art class had looked into both of their directions and an immediate uproar of laughter was heard. “Way to go Hinata!” Komaeda heard someone yell. Ah, so that was his name.

Komaeda just stood, staring at the absolute disaster in front of him. Two weeks of work was now splattered on the back of Hinata, and Komaeda was literal seconds from a breakdown.

Hinata raised his head up, covered in what Komaeda knew to be lavender, blue and red paint, and his eyes slowly met Komaeda’s. He was silent, and just stared for about thirty seconds, then he sat up slowly. The canvas fell on the ground and Komaeda felt his heart break when he looked at his now ruined painting.

In Komaeda’s eyes, the painting wasn’t really that interesting to look at in the first place. It was just a simple scene of an old bridge that was near his house. The bridge had burned down when he was little, but his grandmother had a picture of it that hung in the living room. The only thing that made the scene even pretty was the abundant wildflowers that grew there. His grandmother had called it “The Water Lily Bridge.”, in reference to the flowers that grew there. Komaeda had managed to duplicate every single on onto the canvas. 

Now all that work was ruined, Komaeda felt like he was hit by bus with how sad he felt.

Hinata was looking around him, still covered in all that paint, and started picking up the jars and brushes. Komaeda was still frozen and staring down at Hinata. “I’m so sorry Komaeda” Hinata had said “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking and you startled me-”

“How do you know my name?” Komaeda cut him off, kneeling down to help the other pick up his mess. Luckily none of the glass jars shattered, otherwise Komaeda might have cut his fingers, wouldn’t that just make the day even better?

“What? You- well we’ve had this class together since July and-“

“And I haven’t spoke to you once. I didn’t even know your name until someone yelled it out when you fell.” Komaeda cut him off again. He knew he sounded a little mean, but shit this random guy ruined his painting. He figured he had a right to be a little rude.

“When we do our presentations. I knew your name from when you showed us that watercolor painting. I really liked it too, I can’t paint watercolor for shit, so I found it pretty cool you could make an entire grass scene with it.” Hinata stated, standing up and placing everything on top of the easel. Komaeda didn’t pay much attention, and only stared as more paint dripped down Hinata’s white shirt, it was a rainbow of color now. 

Komaeda had barely remembered the watercolor painting from the beginning of September. That was months ago, why would Hinata remember it? More importantly, why would he make sure Komaeda knew he liked it?

First he was angry, now Komaeda was confused. That just made him angrier.

“I’m sorry, again.” Hinata mumbled, wringing his messy hands together. Komaeda was still on the ground, just staring at the paint brushes in his hand. 

“It’s fine.” Komaeda muttered, “it wasn’t that nice anyway. Let’s just go get that paint off of you.” He stood up and started walking towards the door of the classroom. He heard Hinata follow behind him, and they made their way to the boys restroom down the hall.

***

Hinata looked in the mirror above the sink, and immediately broke down in laughter. Komaeda, who was still pretty pissed about his painting, just stared at him. In the two minute walk from the classroom to the bathroom, Hinata had seemed to relax a bit. He had probably thought Komeada had just forgiven him and everything was okay now that Komaeda was helping him clean up. 

“It looks like a unicorn threw up on me.” Hinata laughed, starting to wash his arms and hands in the sink. Komaeda still just stared, leaning back against the wall to watch.

“I know I’ve already said it a hundred times, but I really am sorry Komeada, I can tell you’re still pretty upset” Hinata said, starting to wash his face now. Komaeda just shrugged “Like I said, it wasn’t anything much. I’m just a bit mad since it took me so long to make. But it was an accident. Also I hope that soap doesn’t break out your skin, it’s pretty shitty.” Hinata laughed again “I just ruined your two week long project and you’re concerned for my skin? If it were me I might’ve started yelling at you.”

When the painting fell on Hinata’s back, he had a few choice words for Hinata, but in the nanosecond he took to process, he decided it was best to say nothing. “I wanted to. But I don’t even know you. Plus everyone had already been laughing at you. I didn’t want to make it worse.” That was a half truth. Komaeda just didn’t want to draw more attention to  _ himself. _

Hinata dried off his face and arms, “My clothes are ruined, I’ll just be like this all day I guess.”

Komaeda cleared his throat, “I have an extra shirt. It might be a bit big, but it should be fine.” Hinata shook his head, “No I’ll be fine Komaeda. You don’t need to be nice.” Komaeda rolled his eyes “I’ll go get it hold on.”

Komaeda still wanted to be mad, but at this point it had taken a bunch of energy out of him. Plus, Hinata was nice and he could tell he was genuinely sorry about everything. 

Komaeda came back with the shirt, and handed it to Hinata. “Komaeda I swear it’s okay. I don’t need to wear it.” Komaeda rolled his eyes again.

“It’s just a painting. I can fix it, now wear the damn shirt.”

  
  


***

A week had passed, Komaeda had already began redoing his painting. The day of the “Hopeless Disaster” as he named it, passed peacefully and he finished the painting within another week.Hinata had worn the shirt, and helped Komaeda mix the right colors and clean up the paint brushes.

Komaeda learned that Hinata had enrolled in the art school to learn how to draw comics. He read them a lot throughout his childhood and high school. During middle school he’d perfected tracing pictures of Spider Man. Eventually he learned how to draw anything with his free hand. The drawing that got Hinata a scholarship into the school was a collage of every comic book character he’d ever read. “Everyone tells me the ‘pictures don’t count because I didn’t think of them myself’ I want to make my own characters and all that. I have an idea but never works out how I want it.” Hinata explained, Komaeda noticed the slight sadness in his voice.

“Well does it have to be a superhero? You can’t make one of those, what was it, oh those romance mangas?” Komada suggested. Hinata’s face turned red at that, “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t know how to write romance.”

“Well maybe a horror? Maybe make a guy with eyes and teeth on all of his limbs.” 

“That sounds disgusting. No.”

Komaeda huffed, “Okay...Maybe a murder mystery?”

Hinata perked up,”That sounds cool.” He had poured red paint into a jar to make a lilac color for Komaeda, “Whats the plot?l

Komaeda thought for a minute “ Okay how about a bunch of kids go to an abandoned island. They have no idea who they are or any memory of their lives. Then, someone gets killed and it turns out the murderer is the main characters alternate personality who sent them to the island in the first place.”

Hinata stared at Komaeda, his mouth dropped open, “Komaeda that’s fucked up.”

Komaeda felt his face blush, “Well you told me to come up with the plot! I paint I don’t write.”

“Yeah but that’s just crazy! What kind of nut would do that? And plus that ending was so lame. No murder mysteries.” Hinata said, presenting the paint jar with lilac inside, “I made your lilac paint, now what do I need to make next?”

The rest of the week went smoothly, Hinata decided to sit next Komaeda the whole time. It wasn’t that Komaeda had protested this, he just thought it was kinda weird. But now Komaeda someone to talk to besides himself, so it was fun. 

Two things Komaeda learned from sitting next to Hinata for a week, he really liked orange juice and was kind of..well, dumb. Not in the mean way, he just didn’t really grasp a lot of common sense.

Another thing that Komaeda learned about himself, was that when there was someone to listen, he talked a lot. He often found himself rambling about how a certain paint would blend or how it looked on a different canvas. Sometimes they just made no sense and the little voice in the back of his head would say “Nagito you’re talking way too much. Hinata stopped listening ten minutes ago.”

Luckily he was always wrong about that. Hinata always listened. It was even better when Hinata gave him his number, so Komeada could talk his ear off even outside of school.

That made Komaeda feel something he couldn’t really describe. But he would address that when it came to be a problem.

The class’s most recent assignment was to create a picture of something in the room, but add your own twist to it. Komaeda had drawn total blanks when it was first assigned so after three days of a blank canvas he started to lose faith. Hinata had chosen to draw the window of the classroom, but he would make the picture have a neon look when he colored it. 

“You still haven’t started Komaeda? What’s wrong did you break your hands?” Hinata teased, looking up at Komaeda with a smile. 

“I can’t think of anything. I think I’ll just paint the ceiling at this point.” Komaeda sighed, resting his face in his hand to watch Hinata draw the window.

Hinata had this deep set expression on his face when he drew, like he was performing a heart surgery almost. He was so focused Komaeda hadn’t even tried to start talking.

Then it hit him. Komaeda wanted to paint Hinata. 

“Hinata, I know what I’m gonna paint.” He announced, sitting up. Hinata looked up at him and smiled, “That’s great Komaeda what is it?”

“You’ll see. And don’t worry Hinata it’s gonna be the best thing I’ll ever paint.”

Hinata laughed softly “Alright Komaeda. I’ll hold you to it.”

Komaeda laughed too. Hinata made him laugh a lot more in one week than anyone else did in a year, and he was really starting to like it.

“Oh and you can call me Hajime if you want to. I should’ve told you a bit earlier but I didn’t know if you wanted to be friends or not.” Hinata said, and Komaeda swore he saw him blush a little. ‘Friends.’ The word repeated in his head a million times and Komaeda suddenly got really dizzy.

“Oh, uh yeah we’re friends. You can call me Nagito.” Komaeda tried to swallow down the butterflies he felt in his chest. Shit shit shit.

That night, Nagito dreamed what colors he would paint Hajime’s eyes.

***

No, Nagito did not have a crush on his painting ruiner/ new desk partner. That would be ridiculous!

Unless...

It all hit Nagito once Hajime said they were friends. Plus, Hajime was really nice to Nagito and listened to him and he had the nicest eyes and- Son of a bitch.

So of course Nagito decided to paint a picture of him. It was just for a project. What’s the worst that could happen? Hajime would be weirded out and never speak to Nagito again? No. And so what if he did?

Nagito could fake his death. It’s not that hard right?

Komaeda tried his best to keep the whole thing a surprise for Hajime. However that’s pretty hard when Hajime would catch him staring, but Nagito just played it off as daydreaming. 

Another week passed, and he finished the painting. Nagito felt like it was one of his best. But then again, he might have been a little biased.

He arrived to class early and put a sheet over the canvas. Komeada felt giddy, he’d managed to keep this a secret from Hinata for a while, and now he could finally show him.

Class had started and Nagito was bouncing in his seat, his eyes glued to the clock. Hajime was usually late to class anyway, but he always showed up at 8:05.

Five minutes passed. Hinata wasn’t there.

Ten more. Hinata still hadn’t shown up. Nagito felt his heart sink. Why today, of all days, would Hajime decide not to show up.

Ten more minutes passed, and Nagito wanted to scream when Hajime walked in the door, “I’m sorry I’m so late, I didn’t set an alarm last night.” Komaeda could tell he had just woken up, his hair was disheveled and he still had toothpaste on the corner of his mouth.

“Is that your painting Nagito?” Hinata asked, pointing at the sheet, his eyes widening. Komaeda felt his heart jump, he didn’t think Hajime would be so excited.

“Yeah it is! You wanna see it?” 

Hinata modded furiously, “Of course I do! You wouldn’t even let me get a peek for weeks.”

Nagito gulped. Now here was the hard part. ‘Show Hinata the painting without having an entire meltdown in the middle of the room’

“Okay, and fair warning it really isn’t much.” Nagito mumbled, his nerves starting to get the best of him. Hajime frowned, “You shouldn’t talk like that Nagito, I’m sure it’s gonna be great.”

Nagito didn’t respond to that, and shakily pulled the sheet off. God he was going to have a heart attack.

The painting was simple. It was Hajime, sitting at his desk with his head in his hand and drawing. Komeda made sure he captured the angle almost perfect, so Hajime could be almost looking at a picture of himself. Nagito’s favorite part was Hajime’s eyes. He picked the perfect shade of green and it matched perfectly.

Hinata stared at the canvas for a long time, his face was blank. Nagito was starting to worry he thought he was a creep, and that Hajime was seconds from leaving or decking Nagito in the face. 

Nagito started to panic, “Do you hate it? I’m sorry I know it’s creepy and weird and I’ll just burn-“

“I love it.” Hajime whispered, stopping Nagito’s words.

“You...you do?” Komaeda asked, moving closer to him. He stood next to him and looked at the painting with him, afraid this was just a dream he would wake up from. 

“Nagito you made me pretty. I can’t believe it. It’s beautiful.” Hajime said, Nagito noticed his cheeks were red now. Was he really that flattered? 

“Um, thank you Hajime.. I thought you wouldn’t like it. I was scared you wouldn’t want to be friends.” Komaeda said, looking down at his shoes.

Hajime laughed, “That’s insane Nagito. It’s beautiful. Why would you even think that?”

“I just, i was just scared is all.” Nagito repeated, he sat down at his desk now, his nerves had taken a lot of energy out of him. Hajime sat next to him. 

“I wouldn’t quit being your friend for anything Nagito.” Hajime said, patting his back, “The painting is amazing. And.”

Komaeda felt his stomach flipped for the twentieth time that day, “And what?”

Hajime took a deep breath, “And uh..you’re amazing too, Nagito.”

Silence. 

Nagito’s brain short circuited, oh god oh fuck what was he gonna say? 

Bingo.

“That’s cheesy Hajime.”

Oh for fucks sake.

Hajime’s faces turned red again, “Well I don’t know what else to say, but it’s true.” Komaeda couldn’t help laughing, and all his nerves immediately went away.

“Nagito I really am serious. I think the painting is amazing, it looks like a photograph, and you’re so talented. I-I’ve kinda liked you ever since I messed up your paint and we sat together. I just got to know you and you’re so kind and-“

Nagito cut him off by pressing his lips to his. Though he would admit he could have thought of a better response, this one felt right.

The only thing that registered in Komaeda’s mind was that Hajime’s lips were soft and tasted like toothpaste. Hajime started kissing him back and when Nagito ran his hand through Hajime’s hair was that it was soft too.

A minute passed until Komaeda realized they were still in class and someone had noticed by now that they were kissing, and he pulled away.

“I’m sorry.” Nagito breathed, “I got carried away, I hope you aren’t mad.” Hajime smiled at him, and the butterflies came back, “Of course not Nagito.”

For the rest of the class, Hajime held Nagito’s hand in his. It was a small gesture, but the warmth he felt in his chest was something he would never get used to.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I’ve never written them before so I hope it’s good. :)


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